E-News for September 2000
Greetings ALMA Members,
Safety glasses are required in almost all laboratories but the use of side shields is still optional in many labs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 40% of injured workers were wearing some form of eye protection when the accident occurred and that the most common problem was lack of side shields. It was found that almost 70% of all accidents resulted from flying or falling objects striking the eye with nearly 60% of the objects being smaller than a pin head. Contact with chemicals caused about 20% of the injuries. OSHA regulations state:
“The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection that provides side protection when there is a hazard from flying objects.”
This regulation makes it clear that it is the employer’s responsibility to require and enforce the use of eye protection with side shields for some operations and the issue cannot be left to employee discretion. The laboratory should have a clear policy on the type of eye protection required for each type of operation and the policy must be strictly enforced. Lab managers should commend chemists or technicians who confront violators and ask them to put on their protective equipment, including important visitors such as company executives or customers touring the lab.
Perhaps I just haven’t been paying attention but I recently learned of a concept that was new to me known as Attention Management and became aware of the existence of the Attention Industry (Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct, 2000). Actually the Attention Industry has been around for quite some time but under the less glamorous name “Advertising.” The gist of the concept is that communication of critically important messages must be managed to grab the attention of the target audience, to be separated from the vast quantity of background communication, and to be distinctive enough to be retained in memory. The authors maintain that the average manager receives more than 100 voice mail and e-mail messages a day and the average company has more than 16 major initiatives underway at any given time. People complain of information overload and “initiative fatigue” and say that they can’t pay attention to all messages—attention is a zero sum game and there’s only so much to go around. The authors offer several suggestions for bridging the psychological barrier to get your message across. For example, try to engage your audience emotionally, appeal to their competitive spirit, remove distractions, and try to personalize the message. They also advise using technology but warn against letting it detract from the message by becoming the focus of attention or by getting into a technology arms race with other communicators. They cite the example of Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy who outlawed PowerPoint presentations in his company when the technology began to overshadow the message and became counterproductive. There are many diverse opinions as to what is required to be a leader but most agree that communication is a critical skill. As lab managers and leaders of our organizations, we should work to improve this skill by putting the same degree of thought and planning into our communications efforts as we do in other critical tasks such as managing budgets or developing services.
Some of you who have worked with business consultants might be interested in the book Consulting Demons: Inside the Unscrupulous World of Global Corporate Consulting by Lewis Pinault which looks at the dark side of this business. The book is of little value in lab management but offers an interesting insight into the world of the people who guide our executives in the decisions that affect us.
The deadline for registering for our 21st Annual Conference is fast approaching so be sure to sign up. The topic is “People: The Source of Laboratory Value” and promises to be very informative with lots of new ideas and insight. Also, our host, Agilent Technologies, has arranged several events to make this conference especially memorable. I look forward to visiting with each of you during the conference.
If you have any comments, cost saving suggestions, opinions, etc. let me hear from you .
Wayne